Chateau La Grolet Tete de Cuvee Cotes De Bourg AC – 2018

This is our “wine of the Autumn 2022”! To be awarded this very personal recommendation, I am looking for a wine which totally overdelivers in quality at its price point, which has a definite “wow factor”, and which is an excellent example of its specific style and region of origin.

This biodynamically certified red is a blend of 85% Merlot with 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec, all from from 55 year old vines. It is rich, fruit-packed and opulent with multiple layers of flavour, good freshness and substantial structure. It is the perfect “weekday” Bordeaux red which is already drinking perfectly but should develop nicely for another 5 years.

 “It’s a long time since a bordeaux has stolen my heart. I opened the bottle idly, unconscious expectations low for a young Côtes de Bourg under £20. The alcohol on the bottle said 14% (it turned out to be 13.8%) so I was expecting heat and oak, lots of Merlot dust and bell pepper. The usual. Instead, it was like walking out the door into the garden as the sun is rising on a late spring morning and the cool, pearl-white air is exploding with bird song. An orchestra of pure-throated, swelling-with-the-joy-of-alive, swooping fruit. The purity of the fruit – succulent cassis, black raspberry, wild-tannic sloe, brambly blackcurrant, dense damson – is so striking that it took my breath away. The tannins feel like moss-covered wood, taste like moss-covered stones, move tendrillar up around the fruit. The energy of the wine (intense, purposeful but cool and meditative rather than manic) spirals in the mouth, helical, cochlear; a whorl that draws you in then out and back around. This is a remarkable wine. You could age it, probably for a long time, but it’s so gorgeous right now that I’d drink it for its glowing beauty of youth. Punches way, way above its pay grade.” 17.5pts and “Very Good Value” Jancisrobinson.com